Ill. Gov Proposes Dollar Cig Tax Increase

SAN FRANCISCO - MARCH 09: Shop owner Izzat Asfour sells a pack of cigarettes to a customer March 9, 2006 in San Francisco. Sales of cigarettes in the U.S. in 2005 hit a 55-year low, falling more than 21 percent since state attorneys general negotiated an historic settlement with the tobacco industry eight years ago. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.(IRN) — The governor is pressing the case for a cigarette tax increase to save Medicaid.

Gov. Pat Quinn proposes raising the tax on cigarettes by $1 as part of the effort to close a gap of $2.7 billion in the Medicaid budget. He says it’s a revenue producer and a cost saver.

“Well, we want to reduce Medicaid costs over the short term and over the long term, and there’s a proven way to do that, to reduce tobacco-related diseases, to stop one of the biggest causes of cancer in Illinois is cigarette smoking, and there’s statistical proof that if you raise the price of cigarettes, a lot of young people never start smoking,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) says she is not philosophically opposed to a cigarette tax increase, but she objects to raising it because she says it’s a revenue solution to a spending problem.

The governor notes that three-quarters of his plan to reconcile the Medicaid budget is cuts, and he doesn’t want to cut any further.